‘Closure’ of arms licence office in Peshawar triggers concern

PESHAWAR: Thousands of people have been suffering owing to the closure of the arms licence office in the provincial capital for the last one month.

Neither the district administration nor the provincial Home Department officials were willing to comment and give any solid reason why the office has been shut for such a long period.According to applicants, they had applied for the licence a month ago and then came to know that the office had been closed for an indefinite time, when they visited the office for an update.

“The license of a pistol usually takes two weeks to get readied. When I visited the licence office after two weeks, they told us that the office has been closed due to public complaints,” one of the applicants told The News.

Pleading anonymity, he said they were told that some of the people had complained to the senior government officials about the alleged corruption in the license office at the Home Department and the Home Secretary then shut their section of the arms license.An official of the district administration on condition of anonymity told The News that they had nothing to do with the licence office, saying they just collect applications and then send them to the Home Department for further action. He said the licence office in the district administration was fully operational as they didn’t receive any complaint against its staff.

“The issue was reported in the license office of the Home Department and they actually closed their office where the whole process is done and smart cards are printed,” he said.A spokesman for the deputy commissioner said they were not aware of any complaint against the licence office.

A senior police official, however, told The News that it was decided at a high level meeting to close the license office after they received reports that people belonging to other districts, particularly the residents of tribal districts were getting arms licences from Peshawar.

“We not only closed the license office but also initiated an inquiry. Actually there were senior government officials who used to verify applications of non-local people and get Rs1000 to Rs2000 for one application,” he added.

He said they had also stopped all the police stations in Peshawar and station house officers (SHOs) from verifying applications for arms licenses to discourage outsiders from getting arms licenses in Peshawar.